ABSTRACT
If transitional justice is defined as the "conception of justice associated with periods of political change, characterised by legal responses to confront the wrongdoings of repressive predecessor regimes", then the question must be asked, has transitional justice had any relevance at all to the Northern Irish situation? In Northern Ireland, antagonistic discursive reproductions tend to take three major forms: nationalist histories, unionist histories, and Marxist histories. The social pressures that would lead to the Troubles began to build most visibly in Derry in the 1960s. Up until January 2017 Northern Ireland was led by a consociational executive jointly led by the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. The Northern Ireland Executive broke down as Sinn Fein withdrew from government in response to a scandal over a renewable heat incentive programme. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
